Chapter 42
Selena
I finally had a night off from rehearsals a few days after my conversation with Winter at the ice rink. The house was quiet when I let myself in. The housekeeper had left dinner heating in the oven, and the lights were on, low but cozy.
It felt good to be home. It had been a long, hard week with all the extra rehearsals, my library shifts, and coursework to keep up with.
I’d barely seen Brody since our night together. I was largely relieved. I had no idea what to say to him after all of that.
Add in Winter’s constant warnings that I needed to tell him about the creepy cop and his threats, and I wasn’t exactly seeking him out.
I ate dinner and watched TV, enjoying the solitude. Hockey practice was getting intense now, as well, so the house was often empty.
The thought had just crossed my mind when my phone rang.
“Selena, are you going to come and see me this weekend?” Cici’s voice came over the line.
I set my fork down. “Of course, if you want me to.”
“Yeah, it would be nice. I haven’t seen Mom in a while.”
“She’s traveling still, I think. I don’t really know. You know Mom. Her head is in the clouds.”
“Yeah.” Cici’s tone was lackluster.
I was immediately worried. I was more attuned to her moods than anyone else’s. Something was wrong.
“I’ll come tomorrow, how’s that?”
“Really?”
“Yeah. I can make it work.”
“Okay, sounds good,” Cici said, sounding slightly happier.
I chatted with her for a while and then hung up. Crap, it was going to be a challenge to get there tomorrow on public transportation. That was what made it take forever. Could I just take a taxi?
I was considering it when a noise from the hall sent my nerves leaping.
I flinched hard and got up softly. My socked feet were almost silent on the hardwood floors.
I looked along the hallway toward the west wing. Along there was the stairs down to the gym, the doors to the pool, and the entrance to the garage. Could someone have entered through the pool doors, or maybe the garage? Did the alarm even cover those areas?
Sure, it would. What would be the point of an alarm system that didn’t cover all the external doors? John Sinclair would pay for top-of-the-line security. I had to believe that.
Then the day I’d first met Officer Fuckface at the house returned to me. I’d stood there on the front doorstep while Arthur had talked about giving authorization of the security codes for the police department. What if Preston had somehow gotten into the system? What if he could disable the alarm?
Fear swarmed me, blocking out rational thought.
It became hard to breathe, my heart accelerating until it was thumping so hard it hurt.
I skirted around the kitchen island and grabbed my backpack, rummaging in the depths. My hand emerged with my pepper spray and a small, discreet taser. Which one would be most useful?
I decided I needed both and kept one in each hand, then went back to peer down the hallway.
The noise had stopped, but I knew I hadn’t imagined it.
I needed to check it out, or I needed to leave the house.
I didn’t have a car, though, so I couldn’t just drive away.
I wasn’t sure if it was best to confront someone in the house, or out on the dark and winding driveway that sat between the house and the road.
No. I’d stand my ground, here, in my home. If nothing else, Cal and Brody would be back at some point. I took a step toward the dark hallway. I could call Brody. He’d come. Somehow, I knew with a bone-deep certainty that he’d come if I called.
But then I remembered my overreaction in the library. He’d hurried over there, and nothing had happened.
I took another step down the dark hallway. Outside, a shadow moved across the gleaming blue of the swimming pool, and I jumped about a foot in the air.
There was someone in the pool.
What the hell?
I stared out the window for a moment, making out Brody’s strong figure cutting through the water, doing punishingly fast lengths.
Motherfucker.
Relief flooded me, even as annoyance sparked. He couldn’t give even the smallest sign that he was home?
I stormed down the hall and pushed open the glass doors to the pool area.
“Hey—bellend!” I called out as he dove underwater to turn at the end of the pool, then pushed off and shot back toward me.
He came to a stop mid-stroke to stare up at me. The low pool lights glinted off his wet hair and the rounded muscles of his strong shoulders. Why am I even noticing?
“What have you been up to?” he asked, his gaze fixed on my hands.
I realized belatedly that I was still holding the self-defense stuff. Okay, so no way to look cool now. When in doubt, attack.
“I didn’t know you were here. I thought it was someone else,” I accused.
“And you had plans for that person?” Brody teased. He swam toward the edge of the pool. “You look like you need to relax, and we’ve not had our workout all week. Get your arse in here with me.”
“What! No, pass. I’m going to bed.” I stepped back as he put his arms on the edge of the pool.
“No, you’re not.” Brody levered himself up easily and stood. Water cascaded off his powerful body and onto the tiles. “You’re coming with me.”
“No, I’m not,” I repeated, a sudden thrill of excitement running through me.
Brody took a step in my direction.
I pointed the pepper spray at him. “Don’t come any closer, or I’ll use it.”
“Go ahead, sweetheart, but in the interest of being a gentleman, I’ve got to tell you that the nozzle is pointed toward your own face,” he said calmly.
What the hell?
I made the mistake of glancing down to check if what he’d said was true, and he lunged.
His hand closed around my wrist, and the cannister fell to the ground. In my fright, I dropped the damn taser, too.
“Got you, heathen. Time for a swim,” he said in my ear, pushing me toward the pool. His wet skin pressed on my clothes, soaking through.
“Don’t you dare,” I warned him and bucked back into him. That damn excitement thundered through me now. I was having fun; I couldn’t deny it.
“Don’t be a sore loser, baby,” Brody goaded.
Ugh. I couldn’t let him win so easily.
I considered all the ways I could distract him and could only come up with one surefire method.
“Okay, okay, down boy,” I murmured over my shoulder at him. I slid my hand behind me and down the dripping hard planes of his abdomen, then under the elastic band of his trunks.
He stilled for a second, and I closed my hand around his dick. His skin was cold, but he was hard. It seemed that the swimming pool was nowhere near cold enough to have a detrimental effect on Brody, or maybe he was too big for that. What could water do in the face of such a monster?
“You’ve got that problem again, haven’t you?” I ran my hand up and down his length, subtly changing the position of my feet so I could put weight on one of them.
“Hmm, seems so. It’s a recurring issue around you. But don’t worry, you’re going to help me with it after our workout.”
“God, you’re so annoying,” I said sweetly and then sprang my plan into action. I stroked him another moment, lulling him into a false sense of security, and then stomped on his foot.
He let go, and I shot away. I had no idea if he’d let me go on purpose, considering my stomp on his foot hadn’t exactly been hard, but I didn’t care. For now, I was winning. I danced away from him. He followed.
“Playing dirty? I will, too, in that case. Consider this fair warning,” he said in a low tone that might have been the sexiest sound I’d ever heard.
I made a chitchat motion with my hand. “You’re all talk, Sinclair.”
He laughed and thrust a tattooed hand through his wet, dripping dark waves, pushing them off his forehead.
“I’ll do more than talk when I catch you—”
“You’re still talking,” I pointed out and then gave out a yelp as he took off toward me.
Shit. I turned and darted around the pool as fast as I could. The only advantage I had was that I didn’t have wet feet. That had to slow him down a little, right?
It didn’t seem to. I ran away from the pool and ducked behind the row of pool furniture. Brody slowed down and stalked me along it, only the sun loungers between us.
I grabbed a cushion from one of them and chucked it at him. He dodged it effortlessly.
“I’m not doing a workout now,” I told him as firmly as I could.
But there was no way I was clawing back normality after I’d started this game.
Brody’s eyes gleamed with the excitement of the chase, and I got it.
I felt it, too. I wanted to win, but I wanted to get caught at the same time.
Maybe I was really just fucked in the head, because I was having fun. Real, actual fun.
He lunged for me, and I changed direction suddenly, dodging just past him.
“Ha!” I let out a cry of victory, far too soon.
I ran back past the pool, aiming for the doors to the house, but a hand sank into the back of my oversized white T-shirt and stopped me.
“No! I was winning!” I protested.
The hand dragged me backward.
“Were you?” Brody teased.
I twisted around to slap his arm, if he’d let me, just as we reached the edge of the pool.
“Yes, I was!” I insisted and turned around.
We’d gotten to the very edge of the pool. Brody’s face was right there, staring down at me.
“I hate to break it to you, sweetheart, but I was never going to let you get away. I’ll never let you get away; get used to that fact.”
He reached for my front pocket and grabbed my phone, tossing it onto a sun lounger.
“Don’t you dare,” I warned him.
He put a hand around the back of my head, another on my hip, brushed his lips over mine…
And walked us backward off the edge and into the water.
Half an hour later, I was drooping limply against the stairs at one end of the pool.
“You made good time,” Brody observed.
“You really need to reconsider this whole CEO thing. You’ve missed your calling as a sadistic drill sergeant,” I muttered.